Dark_Respite

If I were a dev?

Easy.

MORE CUTSCENES.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

D_R's recap:

Day One (Friday):

Arrived at SFO 1:30pm... attempt to get rental car only to realize keys are missing from the car. Attempt #2 gets car, off we go to Dinah's. Get checked in and run into a group of players outside (most of whom recognize me on sight). Hugs and hellos (and introducing Bloodspeaker and Jade Crush, aka the Hubby and the Roommate).

Figuring out whose rooms are where (and cuing several rather lewd and inappropriate jokes). Then deciding to do happy hour at Trader Vic's rather than tromp all over town looking for food. Discover that the awesome sounding pizza isn't available for an hour. Grumbles. Instead I end up with a freaking TUREEN of wonton soup, plus a hamburger and onion rings the size of a Flying Disc (one of which Megumi immediately claimed). In come more players - more hugs and hellos and introductions.

We head next door for gaming with the devs. I get suckered into Jungle Speed with War Witch, Hit Streak (or Think Tank, one of the two) and another player. Then it's Betrayal at House on the Hill... I was REALLY hoping to be the traitor, instead I turn out to be the one who drives the poor woman playing the traitor stark raving nuts because I kept dodging her banshee while running all over the house. Imprompt COH session in the hallway where we're showing off costumes and punny names (whoever had "Rent to Pwn", I love that name). Then it's back inside to kibbutz with Megumi and the group playing Monty Python Fluxx before joining the Wentworths and Smofzilla in a cutthroat game or three of Guillotine.

(Oh yeah - also got the heavenward glance and sigh from Positron when he saw I was wearing my "My One True Pairing (OTP) is Positron and Tava" TCoSR t-shirt.)

Night one - me, hubby, roommate and Arbiter Fabulous share a room. John and Chris both have earplugs because I snore (Fab just has hypersomnia). Which is how all three managed to sleep thru me falling out of bed THREE TIMES (resulting in double charley horses). Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. I end up sleeping on the floor - less distance to fall.

Day Two (Saturday):

7:30am - off the four of us go to Holder's. BACON WAFFLES FTW. Lots of friends (old and new). More hugs and hellos and introductions. Scarfing down food, then racing back to the hotel to join the crush of players waiting to get in.

Keynote: Discussions of upcoming stuff (I-23, new powersets, Summer Blockbuster, etc). Leading to this exchange:

Me: "Where's the I-23 trailer?"
War Witch: "Where's yours?"
Me: "Where's my paycheck?"
(Which led to a fun discussion later with Ross Borden about COH marketing. More on that another time.)

Summer Blockbuster event, btw, looks AWESOME. That movie theater. That colosseum. Those posters. OMG. Want want want.

Market panel: Arbiter Warrant sings (yes, I will be doing a video to his song when he records the studio version. We've already discussed it.), Black Pebble breaks out with the Gundam quote, and much spirited discussion from the players.

LUNCH: Dash over to the poolside grill after I spend an hour talking with Ross. Oy. Someone else comes over to say hi (I forget who), and then I get to tease Fab over lunch. He knows why. As for the rest of you, none of your business.

Design a Powerset - way cool. Not my first choice, but Hubby and Roommate seem enthused.

Design a Costume set - me and Impish Kat think alike. But Arbiter Fab trumps us both. Still, we got the idea out in front of the devs, that was the important thing. And David Nakayama is hilarious as usual with his doodles ("Miss Paragon", "copyright infringement costume set", "dead fish", etc).

Make a Case for Zone Revamp - some really good suggestions. This one, ironically, I did NOT submit an idea for. I couldn't narrow it down to just one zone. Was glad to see that John "Protean" Hegner thinks the same way I do in that delving into backstory will probably feature strongly in whichever zone gets chosen.

Lore/EndGame - oh yeah. My favorite panel. Lots of give and take with the devs on this one (and especially AFTERward between me, Fab, and Hegner). Also had a great conversation with Viridian about this topic.

Cocktail hour: OMG mai tai fumes. Not to mention me getting called out over the PA for monopolizing Dr. Aeon. (Thanks, Zwill.) Anyway, rest of cocktail hour involved me going around to most of the devs, with me now doing the hugging. Except Matt - we're not ready for that yet.

Dinner: HOLYCRAPSPICYPEPPERSTEAKOMGOMGOMG. John promptly takes my food away from me before I inadvertently give myself an ulcer. Great conversation, however, with TheNet, Zwill, War Witch, Hit Streak and Viridian. (Yeah, FIVE devs at our table - we were definitely sitting with the cool kids.)

After dinner: Roommate wins one of the keyboard/mouse/headset combos. Much cheering til we realize we have no room to get them home on the plane. Solution: give Arbiter Fab $$ to ship them home to us. Go us.

Karaoke: If you want to hear me sing, go watch my I-21 teaser. Fab, however, has decided he is going to MAKE me sing at the next Pummit. Uh-huh. Right. The drinks continue to flow, as Fab, me, and Hegner (later joined by Arbiter Hawk and Black Scorpion) launch into a two-hour-long discussion SHOUTING AT FULL VOLUME TO BE HEARD OVER THE KARAOKE about the game and its storylines and stuff.

(Note: Fab has had, at this point, several Mai Tais. Not quite to the point of seeing vapour trails, but he is weaving in and out of character in mid-sentence. It's a good thing I love him because even he usually knows better than to call ME "poodles".)

Oops, get thrown out of the ballroom. Out we go onto the patio, to find a group of folks out there. More socializing, then Zwill shows up, supposedly going to go to sleep. Two hours later, he's still there and so are we. Memorable topics included the dev-proc (random chance that a dev will appear in-game and say something pithy), and the Cat Vanity Pet (summoned via the click power of placing a can of tuna on the ground - 50% chance the cat will appear, with an additional proc that the cat will sniff the food and promptly vanish again in a huff).

Back to the hotel room at 1am. We promptly pass out.

Day Three (Sunday): John, Chris, and I discover that waking up Fab when he is ASLEEP is HARD. Poke, prod, tickle, shout his name, pull away his blankets, nothing works. We were starting to wonder if he was dead when he abruptly sits up. Back to Holder's for more breakfast (the hubby and the roommate get the Supreme Omelettes and decide they won't need to eat again for a week). Much hugs and kisses and goodbyes to the gang of friends at Holder's (including the Wentworths, to whom we donated the three posters we got from the swag bag, a costume code, and a David Nakayama signed comic book, all for the REAL WORLD HERO charity event come November).

Back to the hotel, pack, check out, head to airport. Upon check-in, we realize that upgrading to First Class is surprisingly affordable. Oh HELLS yes! Roommate pays for the upgrades, we have surprisingly good sushi at SFO, then fly back to Seattle.

Life is good.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Re: the 'missing' gangs, I vaguely remember asking about them when making my Retrospective video. One of them became Malta, I think one became the Sky Raiders... I'll have to see if I still have that info around somewhere.

Twilight Men >>> Malta
Killing Crew >>> Sky Raiders

One of the things I wish were still available is that heels-together female pose for the character creator...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I got to play Jungle Sweep (I think that was the name) with War Witch and... Think Tank, I think it was. (Or maybe it was Hit Streak... I can't remember.)

Then Think Tank (or Hit Streak) hosted a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. Fantastic game (and some really good moments, too).

I later ended up playing Guillotine with Smofzilla and the Wentworths. We went three rounds before the ballroom staff finally threw all of us out.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Taking a long drag on her cheroot, she studied the message. Date, time, coordinates - all there. And this particular contact had proven both accurate and reliable - two marks in his favour when it came to maintaining a steady cashflow.

"Hmmm - and there's a permanent group of bounties out for those idiots. Crey for their tech... The Rikti for revenge... In fact..." She scrolled through a few more messages, then a slow smile curved her mouth beneath the camo face paint she wore. "Well, well, well... " Taking one last drag, she flicked the last of it to the floor and ground it beneath her heel.

Luckily for her, she'd just wrapped up her last job here in Striga, so her timetable was free. And thanks to a timely if unwilling donation from the Sky Raiders, she'd just scored some particularly illegal but effective munitions for her team. Time to put 'em to good use.

Swinging her black combat boots onto her field desk, she let out a piercing whistle, and her team came striding in, weapons at the ready as usual.

"You rang, boss?"

"Who's up for a significant paycheck?"

The team's field medic raised an eyebrow. "Define 'significant'."

"As in Arachnos' number three bounty. And then some."

A series of low whistles went around the office, and she nodded in confirmation.

"Yep, the grapevine says that ole Bronze Bombast himself is gearing up to make a move."

"And the 'then some'?"

"Recluse says the offer's been sweetened regarding his head. Double if we can verify it's the real one. Doubled again if it's alive and still attached to his body."

The group's weapons mechanic hefted his minigun and grunted in approval. "My kind of 'then some'." The rest nodded in agreement, and she smirked.

"Get your gear in gear and check it twice. We'll be heading to Independence Port come Tuesday. Dismissed."

The men filed out and she keyed a quick reply to the bounty offer and rose to her feet as well. She intended to claim that bounty... and if she had to take out anyone else along the way to get it, well... with luck, there'd be cash involved for them as well.

After all, she thought, slinging her customized composite bow over one shoulder with a grin, that's why they call me Profiteer.

*****

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

TJ, what time are you doing lunch on Friday? Me, John, and Chris land in SFO at 1:30pm (I think), and God knows we're gonna be starving by the time we arrive in San Jose.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

As long as I can film in it, I don't care which zone gets revamped. Eventually I'd like to see them all get new upgrades of awesomeness just because it improves the vids I can make.

I do agree that if we have Phasing Tech, it'd be nice to see it applied more in-game so we can appreciate the results of our work.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I'll be here until:

a) the servers shut down
b) Matt finally gets that restraining order against me

I might not QUIT, but I would certainly rant, rave, sob, weep, gnash my teeth, and break down the door at Paragon Studios when they finally get rid of the /demorecord feature. (On the flip side, I would take a certain dark amusement in watching the Creative Team in Seattle try and do halfway decent ads for the game without it.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Two pieces I had commissioned that feature both canon and non-canon characters, drastically different in style but both fantastic.

"Down Time" by Aen the Artist:



and "Oops" by Images by Alex:



Total mad props to both guys for being extremely professional and friendly to work with.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Next up, the new transporation power LIONS.

I swear, I'm going to have to dig up the old VOLTRON intro and do a COH parody of it.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

AGH, THREAD NECRO!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I'm just happy to see DISCUSSION! This thread wasn't to lay down "the public opinion", it was meant to draw it out. I was honestly curious what a lot of folks thought.

Realistically, yes - I agree that some "new stuff" will always have to be included, to keep public interest and drive the game forward. But it's just so FRUSTRATING to see so many other little/not-so-little ways that the game needs fixing/improving that could so enhance the gaming experience, and never see them acted on. *sighs*

BTW, Zwill - my offer to spell/grammar-check the in-game text as a contractor? Still stands. Would also do the same to rewrite some of the earlier missions following the slightly more streamlined variant I mentioned in my other post above.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

*waits for the video celebrating the eighth anniversary of the game*

Sorry, I won't have time to make one for you this year. New job and all that. So please don't let me down!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite